Report: Neonatal ICUs Cut CLABSI Rate by More Than Half in 11 Months

Sabrina Rodak -

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality announced that hospital neonatal intensive care units that participated in an AHRQ patient safety program cut their rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections in newborns by more than half in less than a year.

One hundred NICUs in nine states participated in an 11-month neonatal CLABSI reduction project led by the Health Research & Educational Trust of the American Hospital Association and the Perinatal Quality Collaborative of North Carolina. In the program, which began in August 2011, NICUs used AHRQ's Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program to implement catheter insertion and maintenance guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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The NICUs decreased their CLABSI rate from 2.043 per 1,000 central line days to 0.855 per 1,000 central line days — a reduction of 58 percent. This reduction represents the avoidance of an estimated 131 infections, up to 41 deaths and more than $2 million in healthcare costs, according to the report.

The NCLABSI reduction project is part of a broader project funded by AHRQ called On the CUSP: Stop BSI, which uses CUSP to prevent CLABSIs in intensive care and other units.

More Articles on the On the CUSP Project:

5 Lessons Learned on Implementing a National Quality Improvement Project
National CLABSI Project Reduced ICU Infection Rate 41%

Patient Safety Tool: CLABSI Toolkit

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